Thanks Mark. You have linked to two very different guitars and kits, I'll try to comment on each of them separately. First, a small bit about me - I have been playing guitars for quite a few years and building them for about 12. I started with a acoustic kit somewhat like the one in your MF link - it remains my daily player. The Martin kit is very similar to many available from different domestic suppliers - including several who support this forum. These include Martin themselves (you can buy directly from them), Stewart McDonald, Blues Creek Guitars, LMII and others.
The materials in all of these kits is the highest quality - it is the same stuff that Martin builds their guitars out of. The one you linked would be very similar to a D-21 or D-28 when you finished (depending on the binding and finish). To go back to your first post and use Martin as 10, the materials in this kit are also a 10.
Building an acoustic guitar kit is not trivial. The big advantage of a kit over scratch building is that the difficult tasks, the ones you can really screw up, are mostly done for you. Things that require special tools or techniques, including thicknessing the plates, bending the sides, mitering the fretboard, rough shaping the neck and bridge. These are frequently called "serviced kits", another option is an "unserviced kit" where you get all of the woods and materials but the sides are not bent and the neck may not be shaped (allowing you a chance to do them).
There are some very tricky steps that are not done for you - setting the neck angle (I'll come back to this), routing the binding channels, applying the finish. The Martin kit uses a dovetail neck joint, an elegant traditional wood working joint that can be a nightmare for the first time builder. One recommendation that I would make is to build a bolt on neck guitar for your first one (StewMac, LMII). Binding will require a small router and some special bits - that is really the only power tool necessary to build a kit besides a drill motor.
Finish is one of the bugaboos of home guitar construction. We simply cannot duplicate factory finishes. We can get close, but once again, if Martin's finish is 10, expect yours to be 5 or 7 maybe. We can discuss finish options if you want to pursue that.
Most of these kits require you to install the frets. That is a tedious task that can make or break the playability and will require some special tools. I happen to be anal about the condition of frets and feel that most new guitars (including Martin) can use a little work. If my standard is 10, Martin might be a 9 and you can be anywhere from 5 to 10.
Setup and playability is another part of the building process. You will learn how all of the parameters (relief, nut and saddle action, intonation) work and you will get an opportunity two adjust them to exactly how you want the guitar to play. Again, I think that most new guitars can use a little work here - so if Martin is 9, you can be 5 to 10.
If you have a normal small shop with most hand tools, you'll still need to buy some clamps, a couple of good chisels, some fretting and setup tools, the binding router bits, and some other odds and ends. This can add up - your tool costs can be several hundred dollars or more.
Here is another kit source that includes both dovetail and bolt on options as well as a couple of different wood choices
http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and_Su ... r_Kit.html
For a good idea of what you are getting into, here are the instructions
http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-5295/i-5295.pdf
And here is my first guitar build, a rosewood 000 sized guitar kit that I still play today
